Meet The Team – the Livery Trustees

The Trustees of the Company have the general responsibility for ensuring its charitable objectives are met and advising the Court in that regard. The Trustees have particular responsibility for ensuring the charity accounts and charitable work of the Livery fully meet the requirements of the Charity Commission. There will always be a minimum of three Trustees selected and approved by the Court from the cadre of Past Masters who will normally serve for three two-year terms, retiring by rotation. The Trustees will elect one of their number to act as Senior Trustee.

The current Trustees of the Company are Past Masters Michael Kimber, Martin Payne and Ian Smith.

The charitable funds of the Company have a value of some £2million and these are invested under management by Killik and Co. There are regular quarterly review meetings with Killiks where the current position of the funds is discussed and the overall investment decisions are made. As a company we have focussed on ensuring we have solid investments with an ethical and sustainable future.

The key obligation is to ensure that the returns are market competitive and that we have the ability to fulfil our Company objectives of supporting the charitable works we do in investing in young people from our affiliated industries. The annual requitement at present is circa £125-£150k per year. This is a figure we wish to expand on.

In conjunction with the Charity Committee, we have the ambition to grow the charitable funds to more than £3million and from this base we would be able to look at distributing some £180-£200k per year. Ultimately the real ambition is more like £5million where we could look to disburse some £300k and really make a difference to the young people and the initiatives we support.

As a Livery there is significant work going on in the background which enables us to say that we are an active Livery Company investing in young people. If you would like to get more involved with this side of your Livery, please contact Ian Smith or Assistant Eric Wallbank, Chair of the Charitable Committee.

Any contributions from you as Liverymen are much appreciated. Your current contributions from attending dinners and our events are essential as we try to deliver on our ambitions. You can always add to your charitable giving by pledging a small amount monthly by our Go Cardless platform.

Our work as a Livery, and your contributions, make a huge difference to the individuals who benefit from our awards and it is our ambition to grow these so our support for our heritage trades, modern apprenticeships and developing technologies can be continued.